Pasos Libres participated in the first Tech Against Trafficking Summit
On September 27-28, Pasos Libres participated in the first Tech Against Trafficking Summit in Seattle, United States. The event organized by Amazon and BSR brought together over 160 global leaders that fight against modern slavery, including businesses, survivors and activists, governments, investors, and civil society, to expand opportunities for collaboration and accelerate the impact of innovative technology solutions addressing human trafficking and forced labor.
Pasos Libres was part of a group of ten organizations that presented their technology-based programs and tools that help combat the different modern slavery forms. Pasos Libres’ representatives presented #DataJamPasosLibres and #FreedomMakersAcademy as two programs focused on accelerating the development and adoption of technology to stop modern slavery in Latin America and foster collaboration across all sectors and industries.
“According to Tech Against Trafficking, only 6% of technological tools to prevent and interrupt human trafficking and empower survivors are from Latin America and the Caribbean. That percentage is not because we don’t have the talented people to develop that technology but because we are not educating our citizens and businesses about the risks and impacts of modern slavery. Hence the relevance of the Pasos Libres initiatives.” Sebastián Arévalo Sánchez
Together with Fundación Pasos Libres, Polaris, Diginex, Winrock, Stop the Traffik, Pacific Links Foundation, Altana AI, Commit Global, Trilateral Research, and Quizzr, presented their technological tools and the results of their efforts in recent years. Moreover, Tech Against Trafficking members, including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Salesforce, provided examples of how their companies support anti-trafficking efforts and prevent their platforms’ misuse. In addition, representatives of the Governments of the United States, Australia, England, and France discussed the challenges and opportunities to address the issue from an institutional and regulatory perspective.
The Summit focused on three fundamental topics:
- The state of the field: How technology is currently being used to address human trafficking, how it can be further leveraged to combat trafficking worldwide, and barriers and solutions to effective deployment and implementation.
- Supporting and scaling innovative solutions: How we can create systems and structures that simultaneously address exploitation risks and provide holistic support for impactful and scalable solutions, including financial solutions, administrative support services, and evolving government and legislative policy.
- Anticipating trends and focusing future efforts: How human trafficking and field responses may shape and evolve in the coming years and how technology solutions can be effectively deployed and supported to address the shifting landscape.
Some key takeaways from the Summit:
- The need to address the barriers that prevent effective deployment of technology.
- Technologies must be built with a survivor-first and trauma-informed approach.
- Data privacy is a concern, but privacy-preserving methods may offer a solution.
- Technology is not a silver bullet; it must be complemented with policies and due diligence measures.
- Cross-sector collaboration is vital to deploy innovation effectively.
It was an honor for Pasos Libres to share the stage with so many incredible organizations leading unique initiatives to stop modern slavery around the world. Tech Against Trafficking was an event that motivated us to continue promoting innovation against modern slavery in Latin America and served as a platform to continue building solid partnerships with companies, governments, and other civil society organizations.